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Modus Vivendi
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The University
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In Praise of Black Women
Volume 1: Ancient African Queens
Simone Schwarz-Bart with André Schwarz-Bart
Translated by Rose-Myriam Réjouis, Stephanie K. Turner, and Val Vinokurov

With a foreword by Howard Dodson, director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library

 

A magnificently illustrated tribute to Black women in art and story


In Praise of Black Women is a magnificent tribute to women in Africa and the African diaspora from the ancient past to the present. Lavishly illustrated, with text written and selected by the celebrated Guadeloupean novelist Simone Schwarz-Bart, this four-volume series celebrates remarkable women who distinguished themselves in their time and shaped the course of culture and history.

Volume 1: Ancient African Queens weaves together oral tradition, folk legends and stories, songs and poems, historical accounts, and travelers' tales from Egypt to southern Africa, from prehistory to the nineteenth century. These women rulers, warriors, and heroines include Amanirenas, the queen of Kush who battled Roman armies and defeated them at Aswan; Daurama, mother of the seven Hausa kingdoms; Amina Kulibali, founder of the Gabu dynasty in Senegal; Ana de Sousa Nzinga, who resisted the Portuguese conquest of Angola; Beatrice Kimpa Vita, a Kongo prophet burned at the stake by Christian missionaries; Nanda, mother of the famous warrior-king Shaka Zulu; and many others.

These extraordinary women's stories, narrated in the style of African oral tradition, are absorbing, informative, and accessible. The abundant illustrations, many of them rare archival images, depict the diversity among Black women and make this volume a unique treasure for every art lover, every school, and every family.


Forthcoming volumes of In Praise of Black Women

Volume 2: Heroines of the Slavery Era
ISBN 0-299-17260-0 Fall 2002

Volume 3: Modern African Women
ISBN 0-299-17270-8 Spring 2003

Volume 4: Modern Women of the Diaspora
ISBN 0-299-17280-5 Fall 2004


 

Simone Schwarz-Bart
Simone Schwarz-Bart is the author of six novels and a play, which have been translated and published in many languages; Between Two Worlds and The Bridge of Beyond have been published in English. André Schwarz-Bart is the author of three novels, including Le Dernier des justes (The Last of the Just), which was awarded the 1959 Prix Goncourt and has been translated into twenty languages. Rose-Myriam Réjouis and Val Vinokurov have previously translated two works by French novelist Patrick Chamoiseau: Solibo Magnificent and Texaco. Stephanie K. Turner is completing a Ph.D. in comparative literature at Princeton University, specializing in Francophone literature.

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